Simile.: “...I had always felt that the Devon School came into existence the day I entered it, was vibrantly real while I was a student there, and then blinked out like a candle the day I left” (1-2).
This simile shows the impact on which Gene’s experiences at Devon had on his life, filling his life and becoming the center of it while he was there, but once he was gone, it was forgotten, barely existing. John Knowles portrays his style of writing in attempting to establish the intimate connection between writer and reader. He tries to convey Gene’s thoughts and sets the scene, motivating the reader to continue reading by sparking curiosity. Much of Knowles’s writing in this novel is open to the reader for speculation and inference.
Polysyndeton: “We were in a kind of sun porch and conservatory combined, spacious and damp and without many plants” (25-26).
By incorporating the addition of more conjunctions than necessary, Knowles demonstrates his descriptive style of writing and his view that things are not one-sided and cannot be described by just a few words. His objective yet beautiful accounts of the setting contribute to the detached tone.
Personification, Imagery: “To the right of them the gym meditated behind its gray walls, the high wide, oval-topped windows shining back at the sun” (30).
Through the use of personification, the author gives a sense of the peaceful surroundings at Devon and a distinctive contrast between Devon and the rest of the world—in this sentence, against the sun. This is an example of the vivid imagery Knowles frequently employs, contributing to his illustrative style, creating a specific images.
Rhetorical Questions: “Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record without a day of practice” (44).
The series of questions expresses Gene’s frantic thoughts. Finny’s reaction to breaking a school record confused him because he did not want to tell anybody, and Gene did not understand his reasoning, only frustrating him further. Knowles uses these rhetorical questions to show the frenzied thought process of Gene and the lengths he goes to try to understand Finny.
Personification, Simile, Allusion, Imagery: “The beach shed its deadness and became a spectral gray-white, then more white than gray, and finally it was totally white and stainless, as pure as the shores of Eden” (50).
The personification of the beach becoming alive, shedding its “deadness,” reflects Knowles’s propensity to use nature and setting to set the mood. Through his colorful writing, he paints a stunning picture of the landscape. The reference to the Garden of Eden evokes familiarity in the reader, a place associated with beginnings, freshness, and purity. Knowles again tries to establish a personal relation with the reader, writing of things and feelings to which they can relate. The use of all these rhetorical strategies contained within this one sentence reveals the author’s masterful use of language and eloquent writing technique to connect the reader to the surroundings.
Paradox: “...I knew of course that it was the Devon gym which I entered everyday. It was and it wasn’t” (185).
Obviously contradicting himself, Gene addresses the Devon gym as though it were foreign because he has changed. His perception of the world has changed. Although it was a part of his familiar surroundings, Gene perceives the gym a different way, a view which Knowles is able to depict through his use of paradox. This adds to the confused and lost mindset of Gene, the narrator.
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